


Fear

by Riku_Arisato



Category: Code Vein (Video Game)
Genre: Friendship, Gen, Hot Springs & Onsen, Memories
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-01
Updated: 2020-01-01
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:02:21
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,508
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22046836
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Riku_Arisato/pseuds/Riku_Arisato
Summary: The look that the Hunter gave her sent shivers down her spine and the thought of falling down a hole made her freeze up, but she had no problems going through a dark place where she could barely see ahead of her.
Comments: 1
Kudos: 10
Collections: Fragments





	Fear

**Author's Note:**

> Reuploaded to try and fix the word count error. Also ended up changing some things because I recently replayed the game and it inspired me to change up the scenes a bit.

She felt like she was intruding on something that she wasn't supposed to see.

Lily slowly made her way into the room where Louis and Cruz were. Her laughter filled the room as Louis poorly imitated his professor's voice. It was a bit shocking to see this kind of side to Louis.

Each day, without fail, Louis would go to see her and ask how she was doing.  With each visit, the pain that Cruz had to endure would only worsen. To think, just a few days later and their laughter would turn into cries. As she slowly made her way to the same room over and over, it pained Lily to watch them.

**Please **… Please, Louis… I'm… I'm sorry.****

**Cruz, I **… I can't!****

Louis' voice would crack as he cried, and Lily couldn't help but sympathize with his pain.

**Please **… Kill me…****

**I can't!**

The memory began to shift, and the building that once housed Cruz during her treatment was now covered in debris and blood splatters. Once she made it to the room, Louis was on his knees in front of Cruz's bed. The pristine white sheets were now soiled with pools of blood.

**No. What have I done **…?****

Suddenly, the memory shifted again. The building was now completely destroyed and everything was covered in flames. Lily could hear Louis scream for help, and she made her way up the only path she could find among the rubble. Once she made it to the top, she found Louis on his knees as he held his dying sister in his arms.

**It's my fault **… Why didn't I…****

Above him, Cruz's floating figure appeared for a brief moment before spikes rained down. On instinct, Lily braced herself by shielding herself with her arms. A few seconds, and the noise began to subside and she found herself on a small platform where the staircase to the door was. At the bottom, she spotted Yakumo and Louis.

Louis had his back turned to both of them and his head was turned down to the ground. She looked over to Yakumo worriedly but he reassured her with a quick nod before motioning over to Louis. Taking a deep breath, Lily closed her eyes before making her way to Louis. A gentle tap to her shoulder was thankfully enough to get his attention.

"I guess I really can't hide anything from you, huh?" He questioned as he turned to look at her. "That was… a memory from my past… From when the Queen…" He paused for a second and let out a pained sigh before continuing. "…When Cruz frenzied."

Lily looked down and pressed her lips together. She wanted to comfort him somehow, but she wasn't sure what to say to him. Unlike her with Oliver, he wasn't able to kill Cruz. She suffered the guilt from having to kill a friend, while he suffered the weight of the world because he couldn't kill a friend.

"…I'm so sorry, Louis." Was all she could muster up in the moment.

Louis took a deep breath and shook his head. "It's nothing for you to apologize for. Shall we get going now?"

Lily nodded and slowly made her way up the stone staircase to the giant door that would lead them out of the memory.

When they all returned to the entrance to the trenches, Lily made her way to Louis and hesitantly wrapped her arms around him. It might not be what he needed, but it was all she could do to comfort him. "…I'm… I'm not the best at this, but… Louis, I want you to know that I'm here for you. Please don't blame yourself."

Before she could pull away, Louis pulled her close and returned the gesture, much to her and Yakumo's surprise. When they parted, he stared into her bright pink eyes that looked on the brink of tears. "I just didn't want to relive that… I wanted to forget my frailty. Because of me, so many people had to suffer… Many lost their lives, including my sister…"

Lily looked upset. She felt guilty for seeing those memories and forcing him to go through the pain again. She didn't want to be the one to cause him any pain…

Louis noticed this and gently placed a hand on her shoulder. "You don't need to look like that. I'm glad you're here… Because of you, we can search for the Source and ensure a stable supply of blood beads to rid our thirst." Pulling his hand away, his other hand clenched down on the grip of his sword. "I will take responsibility for my past. It's the least I can do."

Yakumo let out a small sigh before walking over and giving him a light hit on the shoulder. "Then let's stop talking about it and get this done already. We're gonna help you end this nightmare, right Lily?"

She nodded. "He's right, Louis. We're here for you. Don't ever think about taking on this burden by yourself, got it?"

Louis' eyes shifted back and forth between the two of them and he nodded. "I know… Thank you, both of you."

* * *

"This doesn't make any sense… Why is this leading back to the ruined city?" Louis' brows furrowed as his eyes trailed along the glow of the blood veins.

Yakumo's eyes widened. "Hold on, it's leading back there? Shouldn't we be heading away from there?" He questioned looking to the path beyond the spring."

Lily looked ahead but shook her head. "Even if it led away from here, it's looking like a dead end up ahead. If we go back to the city, then…"  She closed her eyes to reimagine the ruined city. It was a big place, and it's very possible that they might've missed something. Suddenly, she recalled something and looked over at her two companions. "Do you guys remember that giant hole in the ground we came across? There might be something down there."

Louis placed his hand on the chin of his mask and nodded at her suggestion. "Good thinking. For now, we should head back to the base and search there tomorrow."

Just as they were about to turn around and leave, a voice was heard echoing throughout the cave.

"Wait, is that… singing?" Louis questioned as he looked around for the source of the voice.

"Hold on, look at that." Yakumo exclaimed as he pointed to the area behind them.

Both Lily and Louis followed his hand and were surprised. There was a giant circular orange lattice surrounding the area behind the blood spring.

"…Should we go check it out?" Lily questioned hesitantly as she slowly walked closer to it.

Louis nodded. "Be careful."

The team slowly moved forward, and the singing got louder and louder as they approached. Once they got close enough, there was a man and a woman near the corpse of what looked like another revenant. The man's curved blade was freshly stained with blood while his other hand held a large dark orb. The woman was knelt in front of his while she sang a lovely melody.

Louis and Yakumo both stood in front of Lily with their weapons held up. "Lily, be cautious, it's the Hunter."

She nodded and tightly gripped her sword. "Got it."

Before they could do anything, the orb in the Hunter's hand disappeared as it pierced the woman in the chest. Her singing ceased, and her body fell over limply. The Hunter caught her and cradled her in his arms.

"I don't know what your story is, but let go of them woman. Now." Yakumo warned, eyes narrowed menacingly at the man.

The Hunter remained silent as he stood up. His gaze met theirs, and Lily felt a chill run up her spine and slowly spread throughout her body. Those eyes… For some reason, she felt… scared? Those eyes felt familiar somehow, and her heart started to hurt. Her hands began to shake and the grip she had on her sword began to loosen. One of her hands moved to calm the rapid beating of her heart. The feeling only began to subside as he and the girl vanished right before them in a cloud of smoke.

"What the…" Louis lowed his sword and took a few careful steps forward as he looked around. "Where'd they go?"

"What just happened?" Yakumo asked as he followed Louis.

Once Lily regained the feeling in her body, she took a deep breath to calm herself. She couldn't let them know that something was up. In order to mask her feelings, she followed after them before they came across the dispersing ashes of the fallen revenant. Kneeling down, she put her sword down on the ground next to her. Putting her hands together, she bowed her head to pay respects to the fallen soul. Once she finished, she got up and looked over at Yakumo and Louis. "I think… we should start heading back home now. We all need to rest…"

* * *

"Ah… I really need this after today." Yakumo sighed as he relaxed in the hot spring. "Hey, so where's Lily and Louis? They're both missing out on some naked bonding time."

"Do you really have to ruin relaxing in the hot spring with friends by saying it like that?" Murasame whined as she glared at him. "Anyway, to answer your question, they were discussing the plan for tomorrow."

Yakumo grinned cheekily. "Oh, so the two lovers are off having some alone time? Sounds suspicious, if you ask me…"

Coco scoffed and rolled her eyes. "No one asked. And as if you of all people would have any idea about love…"

He glared at her playfully. "Oh come on, Coco. You can see it too, right? Louis' so protective of her and Lily's always hanging around him. It's not weird to think that something's going on between them, right?"

"I'm just saying that you don't seem like the right person to be talking about love, especially between those two." Coco commented as she rested her head on her hand. "Besides, I don't think either of those kids ever thought about love."

"If Louis loves anything, it's books." Murasame jested with a smile. "As for Lily, well… I guess I don't know much about her."

"Because she barely knows anything about herself."

That remark got everyone silent within seconds. It was a hard truth to come to terms with, but it was Lily's reality. They wondered what it was like to know nothing except your own name. No one at the home base except Io could know what it's like. Yakumo and Murasame had a couple years worth of memories on them while Coco was a rare case that retained almost all of her memories, even from when she was human.

They broke out of their thoughts when they heard footsteps behind them and saw Louis approach.

"Oh, there you are. Where's Lily?" Yakumo asked.

"She fell asleep while we were discussing the plans for tomorrow, so I helped her to bed. You best be prepared for a long expedition tomorrow." Louis said as he walked into the hot spring. Once he seated himself comfortably, he relaxed in the warm waters and sighed.

Yakumo stared at him for a while before something came to mind. "Hey Louis, so what do you think about Lily?"

Coco just shook her head in disappointment.

Louis raised a curious brow before bringing up his hand to his chin to think. "Well… Lily has definitely been a great asset to the team, and it's thanks to her power that we can find the Source. She definitely works hard, and she's a fast learner."

Murasame snickered while Yakumo groaned defeatedly. "Not like that, man. I mean…" He paused to come up with a way for Louis to get what he was asking. "Like, do you find her pretty?"

"Yakumo, have you been drinking?" Louis asked while his eyes narrowed in annoyance.

"First off, I haven't. And secondly, no need to be a killjoy. It's just a yes or no question." Yakumo chuckled to ease the tension.

Louis brought a hand up to put against his forehead. "You've asked me this multiple times already, I hope you realize.

Yakumo gave him a joking smile. "And I'll keep asking until you give me an answer, I hope you realize."

Letting out a heavy sigh, Louis pushed his bangs away from his face. "What even brought this on?"

"Well, I saw you two together the other night…" Yakumo recalled.

This statement seemed to pique Coco's interest. "Together?"

Even Murasame couldn't hide her curiosity and her eyes seemed to light up as she tuned in to the conversation.

He nodded. "Yeah, they were sitting together at Louis' desk and it looked like they were-"

"Reading. We were just reading together." Louis cut him off before the conversation took a turn for the worst. "She was having some trouble sleeping, so I invited her to join me when that happens."

Yakumo looked a bit disappointed at the statement. "Aw, that's it? Really?"

"Yes, now please let me relax. We've got a long day ahead of us tomorrow." Louis closed his eyes and sunk down into the hot spring.

"Fine, fine… I'm gonna hit the hay. Night everyone!" Yakumo got up and left.

"Oh, I have to finish repairing all your gear! I still need to finish Lily's set…!" Murasame quickly followed after Yakumo, leaving only Coco and Louis.

"Hm, well that's a bit surprising." Coco commented as she looked at Louis. "You usually just hole yourself up in that little corner. I wouldn't have pegged you as the type to enjoy some company."

Louis looked away from her to avoid her teasing. "What I said is true. Unlike Yakumo, she won't disturb me too much. It's rather nice to have someone to talk about the things we read."

She hummed curiously. "You know, you have a different look to you lately… I wonder why that is." Before he could say anything more, she got up and started heading out. "Don't stay out too long now. We don't need you passing out on us."

He nodded to Coco as she walked out of the hot spring, and he leaned back to look up at the stars. "Now that I think about it, Lily said she likes to stargaze…" 

* * *

"It's so deep… It's like there's no end in sight." Yakumo complained as he looked over the edge of the thorn he was standing on.

Louis' eyes squinted as he looked down, trying to spot the next place he could land on. "We need to keep going though. Just at least to get to that elevator so we can use it. It'd be the best way to help Lily get down here anyway."

Yakumo nodded in understanding as he dropped down to the next thorn. "Yeah, I get it. Still… I wasn't expecting her to be so against coming down with us. She's usually the one leading us all the time so I never stopped to think there's things that even she's afraid of."

Louis frowned a bit as he recalled how terrified Lily looked when he suggested that they jump down into the hole. A fear of height was definitely common, so he didn't hold it against her. "But it's for the best that she stays up there. It'd be more difficult if all three of us were jumping from thorn to thorn."

Once they made it to a path on the bottom, the two of them looked around and spotted a cave.

"Perfect, that should be where the elevator is!" Yakumo smiled.

The two of them stepped into the elevator and waited as it brought them to the top. Once the door opened, Lily was there and at them.

"Glad you guys made it safely." She let out a sigh of relief before joining them in the elevator. "Did you guys get the chance to check what was there?"

"No, we had to come back to get you first." Louis said, causing her to smile beneath her mask.

It was a long winding cave. Rather than there being a light at the end of the path, the place that they arrived at was dark and thick with miasma.

Yakumo grimaced and inhaled sharply as he looked around. "Looks like it'd be pretty easy to get lost in here."

"For now, let's take a break here." Louis looked over at the rotten mistle before nodding to Lily.

On cue, she pulled off her glove and used a dagger to in order to pierce her skin. As her blood dripped onto the mistle, the miasma began to disperse. To their dismay, it didn't make it any easier to see ahead of them.

"I guess even with this mistle, it's still hard to see ahead…" Lily frowned as the wound on her hand healed. Once she pulled her glove back on, she looked over to Yakumo. "Hey Yakumo, what are you eating?"

He looked up at her and swallowed what he had in his mouth. "This? It's called onigiri. It's a food that's easy to make and carry around." He looked down at it and smiled a bit. "Even through we don't need to eat anymore, I still eat it because it reminds me that I was a human before a revenant. It's kind of what makes me me, you know?"

"Uh, not really…" Lily let out a weak laugh.

Instantly, Yakumo realized what he said. "Shit, sorry… I keep forgetting you don't have any memories…"

"It's alright." Lily reassured with a small smile. "So, this is like something that helps you remember something?"

Yakumo nodded as he held the onigiri up by his face. "Pretty much. When I eat this, I can't help but remember one of my friends… She used to love these a lot and she'd always beg me to make them for her. Don't get why though… Personally, I don't think they taste all that great."

"Well, Coco did tell me once that food is a universal language… Even though we don't need to eat, she tells me how she loves spicy food. It sparks happiness for her. Maybe that onigiri is just something that makes her feel happy whenever she has it." Lily mused thoughtfully.

He hummed as he looked down. "I see… That's an interesting way of looking at it…"

"Right? But while we're on this topic…" Lily held out her hand. "If you don't mind, can I try it?"

"Sure, here." Yakumo dug through one of his pouches and pulled one out for her.  


Once she took it in her hands, she examined it curiously before taking a bite. Within seconds, she wolfed it down with a smile. "It's simple, but I can see why she likes it! I think they're great."

He smiled. "Heh, you think so? This is nothing compared to the pound cake I make! Next time I make some, I'll give you some."

Her eyes lit up happily. "Really? Thanks! I'm sure I'll enjoy it!"

Louis looked over at the two of them and was happy to see them getting along. It was almost hard to believe that Yakumo held any sort of animosity towards her when they first met. After reattaching his mask, he approached the two with his sword in hand. "You two ready to go? We've got a long way ahead of us."

"Yup, just give us a sec." Yakumo and Lily both put their masks back on and took a hold of their weapons, closely following after Louis as they approached the path ahead.

"You think you'll be alright down here?" Louis questioned as they walked down the path.

Lily nodded as she looked ahead at the swampy waters. She had a look of disgust and proceeded to pull her long pale blonde hair up high enough to keep it out of the water. Once it was tied up, she decided to switch her sword out for a bayonet. While she was still learning how to use it, she spent a lot of her free time practicing with it. Her skills definitely proved to be helpful to their expeditions. "I'll be fine, but let's try to stick together or we'll end up lost. We can't get separated in a place like this."

To their surprise, she went on ahead of them. As she made her way into the swamp, she shuddered at the feeling of the water against her clothes. Quickly, she shook off the feeling and continued onwards with no hesitation. Once she was a decent way ahead, she activated a chemical light and waved it in the air so that Yakumo and Louis could follow after her.

"C'mon, let's get through this place already! I really don't want to spend too long in here!"

"Huh… That's a surprise…" Yakumo's eyes widened a bit as she quickly turned around to shoot at a lost trying to approaching her from behind. "I thought she'd be afraid of the dark…"

**Author's Note:**

> For those that got past a certain point in the game, this might make more sense, but I plan to address this topic more in a future chapter. I hope it'll all make sense eventually.
> 
> Anyway, I'm sorry if this skips around too much. I don't really like repeating scenes that happen word for word from the game, so I hope you don't mind. Thanks for reading!


End file.
